Board Meeting 2021-05-20

AGENDA

Attendance

Board Members

• JaiPal Chauhan, President
• Paula Pankratz, Vice-President
• Patrick Hutchison, Secretary
• Scott Sullivan, At Large
• Terrence Laurendine, At Large
• Tom Bloom, At Large
• Doug Wilson, At Large
• David Springs, Immediate Past President

Absent

• Beverly Schellenger, Treasurer

Members

• Rustin Atkeisson
• Joe Pajor
• Shaun Sigley
• Brian Pressnall
• LaDeana Dockery
• Mike Atherton
• Mike Barushok
• Steve Owens
• Anna DiSalvo
• James Seymour
• James Lancaster
• Aaron Rivers (in the woodshop with Rustin)
• John Nicholas

Standing Items

• Thanks & Recognition
  • Cathy B for helping Patrick get the outdoor water leak taken care of.
  • Jai for going to Oklahoma to pick up the new hydraulic paper cutter and Cathy B for helping to clear a space for it in the Letterpress area. The six people who responded to a request to unload the machine in mere minutes. Glenn Beagley for hunting down and finding the machine.
  • Saga and Wes for working on the Welcome Center desk, which is looking fantastic.
  • Arbortechs Profesional Tree Company for the Arborist Mulch in the Garden.
  • Paula and June for scoring the sweet office chair for the office from United Way.

Old Business

• Wild Apricot transition in Payment Platform - Tom
  • Conversion to PayPal is complete. No further work. Process that is run manually is still in place.

New Business

• Treasurer’s Report - Bev
  • Account Balances:
    • Emprise Bank: $8,359.65
    • Ameritrade: $5,200
    • Southwestern Bank: $2,200
  • Total Income through May 17: $6,286 (over half way through the month)
    • Events: $665
    • Membership: $5,501
    • Manual Invoices: $120
  • Instructor Fees paid out: $1,002
  • Monthly Projected Expenditures: $10,722.39 (for the whole month)
  • May 5th American State Bank Payment made: $2,000 to Principal and $195.18 to Interest. Total Payment $2,195.18.
  • We’re very short expenses vs. income. We are averaging about $1,000 a month over on our expenditures. We have about three more months of deficit spending that is possible at this rate before we would need to consider some serious austerity measures to continue to meet our financial commitments. We need more income, or we need to spend less. We’re not out of money, but it’s tight.
  • Where can we trim expenses?
    • Bento Cards aka Area Budgets / Expenses
    • Doug / Woodshop - Think instructor fees are the biggest expense for the Woodshop right now. He has cut back on the number of safety classes offered to help reduce that.
    • Jai - Think that a focus on making sure that consumables expenses are being met / paid in as used. Doug in the Woodshop reports that, for the most part, people have been making right on things they’ve reported as damaged.
  • We are still in a precarious position and everyone needs to keep that in mind. We’re doing a good job with expenses, but don’t let it slip. We need to keep getting more members to sign up (430 at least). Donations would be good too. We also need to see that we have folks signing up for classes that are offered.
  • Paula asks everyone to take a look at our committees and where they can join the work that needs to be done. All of that work keeps us moving forward. We need more people doing this work, so we can all make together.
  • Jai says that if you know a group of people, another organization, where folks could be interested in joining our community, he will run a special Maker Monday just for those folks to help bring them in.
  • Anyone with ideas, please email: board@makeict.org. All ideas are welcome. :-)
  • We’re getting close to 50% rental on lockers. Encourage folks to rent one of the lockers as a way to help offset our current shortfall. It’s just $5 a month!
  • Maybe it’s time to revisit the watermelon feed / grand opening event idea as restrictions are lifting as a great way to bring people in.
  • Garden Committee opening bbq event was great. Aaron hopes to do more to showcase work and changes in the garden and generate interest in the makerspace and monetizing the available garden space as it continues to build out.

• Election Committee Formation - Patrick
  • Nominate the following for the committee: Patrick Hutchison, Christian Kindel, LaDeana Dockery, Malissa Long, Gary Titus.
  • Nominations for the board are open. For latest updates, follow along on this thread on the forum.
  • Pre-work by the committee includes:
    • Setting up the forum thread.
    • Sending out a preliminary email to the membership.
    • Testing a new voting system to replace Survey Monkey called OpaVote.

• Annual Meeting - Patrick
  • Set date / time. Must be decided no later than May 31, and must be announced at least two weeks in advance via the forum. Last year was the third Sunday in June, which was Father’s Day. Suggest the fourth Sunday, June 27th at 3PM, 10 days after the next board meeting, and not on the holiday. Plenty of time for the board to prepare the required Annual Report, and for nominees for the election to be hunted down.
  • Will do on the 27th at 3PM.

• Forge Committee Formation - James S
  • Lots of talk on the forum to bring a committee together to bring the forge back to MakeICT. Still need to figure out some of the details and the wherefores and whyfores such as number, size, and location inside or out. Have a lot of great contacts (like Metal Arts in Haysville) in the area that are likely willing to help. Want to find a safe way for members of MakeICT to be able to make their own cool things. Hope to bring two or three small forges to MakeICT. Could also try to build a relationship with Metal Arts in Haysville for discounted access. Not currently asking for a budget from the Board. Have had lots of offers of donations of materials.
  • Notes from the first meeting of the group are in this thread on the forum.
  • We previously had a small forge on Douglas but some issues were about having something inside, propane, and an area lead that wanted it in the area.
  • Don’t anticipate a big fire or explosion risk. At least initially fuel would be small BBQ grill type propane cylinders or coal.
  • Would a certain distance from the building make it impractical to use the forge(s)? James doesn’t think so.
  • Have discussed putting them on rollers so they can be moved, and put away when not in use. Initially they would likely be about the size of a cheap charcoal grill.
  • Mike Barushok says his Junior High school had a forge as part of their shop program and felt a bunch of the other equipment in the shop was likely more dangerous.
  • Members:
    • James Seymour - Chairman
    • Michael Atherton - Vice Chairman
    • Shaun Sigley
    • Brett Headford
    • David Hanson
    • Ian Cazabat
    • Rustin Atkeisson
    • John Withers
  • Things to research:
    • PUD, City, Fire Department, insurance, noise for the neighbors (day/night), update to master plan.
  • Jai spoke with our insurance agent, Cassie Powell, today. She’s going to check in with our underwriter and get a list of questions from them before they approve a coal or gas range. Some questions she had right off the bat:
    • What level of experience do we have with blacksmithing?
    • Is this forge a purchased item or homebuilt?
    • How far from the building will it be located?
  • FYI - Mike B reminds us that the January 18, 2018 Board Meeting approved metal shop access policy including "forge" as requiring additional authorization.
  • Jai moves to recognize the Forge Committee per the Special Committee formation rules and that the board instructs them to continue their work to identify all the issues and possible restrictions before formalizing a blacksmithing program at MakeICT. Paula seconds. Five yes, two abstain, motion passes.
  • @DECISION: Board recognizes the new Forge Committee in accordance with the Special Committee formation rules.

• COVID Mask Policy Discussion / Update - All
  • Discussion to-date can be viewed in this thread on the forum. Thank you to everyone for a civil discussion!
  • 30% fully vaccinated in SG County currently
  • 40% of 18+ yrs old fully vaccinated.
  • 400 active cases
  • Two primary hospitals ICUs are at high capacity (96% and 98% full).
  • (sourced stats are in discussion at https://talk.makeict.org/t/lets-revisit-the-mandatory-mask-policy/11302/67?u=mikeb )
  • Jai moves that we continue the current policy of requiring masks inside of the building and that we will reevaluate this policy again at the next board meeting. Terrence seconds. Terrence, Tom, Patrick, Doug, Paula vote yes. None vote no. David abstains. Scott and Bev were absent. Motion passes.
  • @DECISION: Board approves maintaining the current mask policy inside the building and will reevaluate again at the next board meeting.

• New Authorization Classes
  • From the Wiki:
    • Approved by the board on September 18 2017: Since safety authorization classes are important to the membership, MakeICT agrees to pay the instructor $15/hour per instructor, not to exceed $60/class. Instructors must submit requests directly to the treasurer with hours, class type and date taught.
    • Area and equipment access policies will be approved by the Makerspace Director in cooperation with the appropriate Area Lead(s), subject to review and veto by the Board of Directors. Access policies and reasons for said policies will be submitted to the membership for review 7 days prior to taking effect.
    • Follow the same template as the Area Orientation for specific Tool Authorization courses. These may be for a fee if there is an alternate path to authorization. These courses should be 2 hours or less.
  • The Issue at Hand:
    • Devin Halsey began teaching a Plaster Safety Class through Ceramics
    • The class has been offered beginning February 11, 2021 a total of 8 times. 4 of them have had attendance. The classes which have had attendance represent 4.5 hrs of time scheduled for a grand total of $67.5 owed to Devin
  • Jai moves to pay for classes taught to-date. Doug seconds. Five in favor, none opposed, David abstains. Motion passes.
  • @DECISION: Board approves paying Devin for Plaster Safety Classes taught to-date.
  • Does the class apply to a specific tool, or to ceramics as a whole? If it applies just to a specific tool, it should be taught as a class for a fee like other tool classes, ie laser cutters. If it’s an overarching safety as part of the studio safety, it should be taught as safety class for the studio. Class as taught is very similar to the Woodshop Hazardous Materials Authorization class.
  • We also probably need to do the same thing with Jewelry Lab and the authorization class that Luke is teaching, and research payment or non payment there as well.
  • Jai moves to table this discussion for the next board meeting pending Ceramics reviewing the class per above and review of Jewelry Lab. Terrence seconds. David abstains, all others in favor. Motion passes.
  • @DECISION: Board tables discussion of Plaster Safety Class and Jewelry Authorization Class till next Board Meeting.

Committee Reports

Awards Committee - x

• Committee not active.

Scholarships - x

• Committee not active.

Communications (and Wikibrarian) - Malissa Long

• Not present.

Facilities Committee - X

• Not present.

Finance Committee - Dan Kries

• See notes / discussion above in the Treasurer's report.

Garden - Aaron Rivers

• Mike B presented report for committee:
  • Continuing to have weekly working meetings of the committee.
  • Have discussed plot rentals. Offer to members 10x10 plots with a few to cover costs, such as water usage. If available plots aren’t taken by members, would then offer to non-members. Don’t expect to fill all the spaces since the garden has started so late. Do expect next season that everything will fill up. There has been interest from the community / neighborhood.
  • Have scheduled two classes: raised beds, vegetable gardening.
  • The issue on locker rentals will also affect garden plot rentals in WA.

Fundraising - x

• Committee not active.

IT - Tom Bloom

• No report.
• Discussion of locker rental and tie-in with Wild Apricot, and issues with that and the record keeping.

Membership (and Community Outreach) - Paula Pankratz

• Membership
  • Currently at 371 active members.
  • 360 at the April meeting.
• Committee met 5.11.21
• Been busy with Maker Mondays and Orientations.
• Plan to use revised trifold brochures as a tool to bring in new prospective members. Ask members to adopt a stand and monitor.
• Invite specific groups for Maker Mondays.
• Request Maker Monday to be placed in all free community calendars.
• Distribute remaining IndieoGoGo t-shirts. Emailed members.
• Chart prospective members who have not completed the cycle. Chart new members who have dropped.
• Encourage members to attend the interview portion of the Member Orientations. Need confirmation to ensure we have 6 signatures covered.

Outreach (and Education) - LaDeana Dockery (interim)

• Mixed with below / Classroom

Classroom Management Committee - LaDeana Dockery (interim)

• Link to report spreadsheet provided by LaDeana on gDrive.

Security (and Safety) - Ken Steadman

• David reports all is well while Ken is out.

Inventory - Anna DiSalvo

• Met with Paula on 5/19/21 and started labeling items to keep or get rid of in room 4.
• We will meet up on Sunday to begin entering items for sale or donations on excel spreadsheet with pictures.
• Items to be purged with any value will be listed on the forum and on site as available for the membership to make offers on as a first come first serve basis for a period of 2 weeks
• After that period of time, the items will be listed to the public for sale
• Leftover items from construction that have no resale value will be donated to habitat for humanity
• Some items that we will be keeping will be temporarily moved in to room 2 or the hallway as items are sorted
• All recyclable items will be taken once the grounds are dry enough to utilize a trailer

Special Projects (and Makerfaire) - x

• Committee not active.

Other Items Discussed

• Jai asks if he can purchase at fair market value the 8” single wall adjustable 90º elbows that are in room 4. Second Doug. David abstains, rest in favor. Motion passes.
  • @DECISION: Board approves sale of 8” single wall adjustable 90º elbows to Jai at fair market value.
• David asks if he can purchase at fair market value the sheets of purple/pink foam insulation boards that are in room 4. Second Doug. David abstains, rest in favor. Motion passes.
  • @DECISION: Board approves sale of sheets of purple/pink foam insulation boards to David at fair market value.

Upcoming Events

• ReMakeICT Tuesday work nights at Booth
  • Every Tuesday from 6:00PM - 9:00PM
• Maker Monday
  • 2nd and 4th Mondays
  • By reservation